Betrayal at it's finest!!!!!

So again, I apologize for my lack of blog entries.  It seems that I may be someone who posts occasionally but reads lots and comments some. 

That being said, today is going to be a blog of a different kind because I am mad, nope, let me rephrase that.   I AM FUCKING LIVID!   For anyone who doesn't want to be a part of my anger I ask you to move on now because at this time I am going to exibite my ugly side.  This may also be a long post, sorry!

I have spent most of my life around horses, rodeo and the farming lifestyle.  I have raised my children in this lifestyle and they love it the same way that I do.  There is a little back round to this story that must be shared before I can get to the source of my anger, most of which is positive. 

In April of this year my middle daughter Michelle decided to run for Rodeo Queen in the pro rodeo we hold every year in our town.  All of my kids ride and the younger two love horses and everything involving them.  Michelle has showed, run barrels and participated in anything horse related ever since she was old enough to sit on a horse.

There were 3 other girls competeing against Michelle in this competition, 2 (Morgan & Sky) who she has known most of her life and 1 (Jessica) from another town nearby.  In May of this year the 4 girls competed in the 1st section of the competition which was public speaking. In July the girls competed in 2 different horsemanship events, reining on this first day with thier own horses, and western pleasure and horsemanship with supplied horses on the other.  The last portion of the competition involved selling as many 50/50 tickets as possible with this being used as a tie breaker if needed. 

Let it be said, it was a fairly close competition throughout, even without knowing the scores until after crowning, we knew that ticket sales would be very important.   So to sum up the happy part of this story, Michelle worked her ass off and won the competition.  Here are a few pictures of her taken by a local photographer from our area.https://www.facebook.com/meghanpearlphotography?ref=ts

I would like to say that I think my daughter is beautiful and she deserved to win. 

So on with my story.   I have always been a big believer in letting my girls do stuff on thier own and only getting involved when they are in over thier heads.  So when Michelle decided to run for Queen I said Go to it! but I would not sell tickets for her or phone the co-ordinator when she needed information.  As far as I am concerned all of these kids are at least 16 and should be able to do it themselves but then again maybe my parenting style is a little different than the other girls parents.

The scores at the end of the day left my Michelle with a 3rd in public speaking (a bit of a surpise because she did really well), she placed 1st in both riding competitions (if you watch the videos, it is clear that she was definately the better rider) and she sold the most tickets (by 17)  The judges in all of these competitions were people who really had no biases about any of the girls so I think it was a fair race.  Every girl got to see everyone's scorecards so they knew how and why the placings were the way the were.

This takes us to the girl who was crowned Princess.  Morgan has know Michelle most of her life and they travelled together during high school rodeo.  Her response to placing 2nd was to not only be rude to Michelle and the orgainzers but to make accusations about cheating in the competition.  This happened during the whole competition but was ignored by the organizers.  Michelle handled this very maturly and just felt sad that Morgan felt that way.

My problem lies with the process in this contest and also the way someone who I thought was my friend reacted to Michelle winning this competition.  I am going to call her BSB (back stabbing bitch) for the rest of this BSB.  When the girls were given tickets to sell, thier goal was to sell as many as possible so Michelle got in her car, drove around our community selling to family and friends and local business.  I bet she spent $300 in gas to sell these tickets!  I never sold a ticket for her, but occasionally I would go with her for her drive arounds just because it was a visting opportunity but as far as I was concerned she wanted to be queen so she could sell the tickets.  Shortly after the competition started it came to our attention that the other girls had dropped thier tickets off at a few local businesses to sell for them.  Michelle came to me with this concern and I said to take it up with the co-ordinator of the contest.  When she did, the response was that there was nothinbg that could be done because there was nothing in the rules preventing this.  Around the same time a local business that one of my good friends owned offered to sell Michelle's tickets for her and she flatly refused, stating that she would sell them properly or not at all.  She sold $4800 dollars in 50/50 tickets by knocking on doors.  (Awesome as far as I am concerned)

Getting back to BSB, her and her husband have been our friends for over 20 years, they have babysat our kids, my husband was best man at thier wedding and overall I thought she would be supportive of Michelle's bid to win this competition.  Well holy fuck was I wrong!  This couple own the local seasonal ice cream shop in our town and Morgan was thier employee this year starting in May.  I should have know BSB would be a problem at some point in time after the first comment to me but of course I like to think the best of people.  Boy did I learn my lesson.

In the middle of June, well into the competition, I went into the ice cream store to buy a cone and was visiting with BSB.  She at this time said "tell Michelle not to bother asking me to buy tickets because I have to support Morgan, she is my employee."  OK, now tickets were 1 for $5 or 3 for $10 dollars and you would think that maybe she could have afforded to buy a some from both girls but that is her choice and she made it very clear to me.  I promptly went home that night and told Michelle not bother selling to BSB or her husband because they were supporting Morgan.  My husband was a little surprised at this but never said anything.

 A few days latter I went in for ice cream again (yeah I know, but it is so good) and thier were for or five signs through out the store advertising rodeo queen tickets for sale in the store for Morgan.  Wow, nothing like trying to win a competition. 

That doesn't matter, Michelle worked her ass off and sold the most tickets and won the crown.  So guess what BSB did in reaction to this.    She went on facebook and posted the following posts.

Cheaters make me SICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!         and      If you can't play fair, don't play at all!!!!!!!!!

I am making a few assumptions here, but Morgan has been going around our small town saying that the competition was fixed and obviously Tina feels the same way.  My big issue is this.  What the fuck is a 35 year old woman doing posting this kind of shit on facebook about something she knows nothing about.  She has never sat on a fucking horse, and she sold tickets for Morgan for 3 months while Michelle was out busting her ass selling on her own.  If the fucking bitch has something to say she should get some balls and pick up the phone and call me or Mark rather than being a spineless bitch and posting shit like this on facebook.

Michelle has handled this very well and chose to ignore it (I raised her right) but I am having a hard time not waling into the ice cream store and telling her what a back stabbing, ignotrant C*#@ she is. 

So my question is this, should I do or say anything? 

Any feedback would be appreciated.

My beautiful family, when they are not dressed like farm kids!

So we are 2 weeks away from being done school for another year.  In saying this Shelley is going to be starting two courses in summer school on July 4th.  She is taking CALM and science 10 through the     St. Pauls Learning Academy so it will be a very busy month for her in July.  Both courses need to be done by July 28th so between babysitting every second week and school she will have a very hectic month. 

Michelle writes her last high school exam ever on the 17th and is counting the days to being done.  They have been writing practice diploma exams this week and she has done great on all of them so she is pretty confident going into her exams next week.  Her and Trent have been looking at apartments in Grande Prairie and are getting thier plans made to move.

Nikki is graduating from the Evelyn Charles Academy next Saturday and will the be a certified estitician that is certified to work in over 50 countries.  She is excited to be done and starting working.  It has been a very long year of going to school and working part time with no extra spending money.

With all of the this going on I am counting the days until summer starts.  We have our horse 4-H achievement day tomorrow so it is going to be a long day in the sun tomorrow.  I have my hat ready and for the sake of my health (lupus be damned) I am going to stick to the shade as much as I can.

I got a call from Jodi at A Thousand Words Photography today and Michelle and I went to look at the pictures that she took at our photoshot after graduation a few weeks ago.  I was shacked at how much my girls look alike.  If Shelley had dark hair they could be triplets.  I just loved some of the special effects that she applied to some of the pictures.  I am going to post some of the pictures just so you can see how beautiful my daughters are.  (I am a little biased)

I think these pictures turned out amazing and the one where she is alone is my absolute favorite.  She just looks so happy and relaxed.  The next 2 pictures are of Michelle and Trent.  I think these are really nice as well.   I apologize for my nasty picture, I hate getting my picture taken.  I can probably count on one hand how many pictures there are of me in the last 20 years. 

 Well I had better get to bed, we need to have horses loaded and be out of the yard by 7:30.  It is going to be a long day.

What the hell mother nature - June 3rd and SNOWING!!!!!!!!

So today we are getting ready to haul animals in to was and get ready to show at the 4-H beef achievment day tomorrow. The most amazing thing about this happens to be the weather. This picture was taken yesterday, the temperature was 27C (80.6 F) with a nice breeze. It was a beautiful day. I mowed a couple acres of lawn and planted some garden.

THIS IS TODAY

It is now a wonderful 0C and snowing.......on JUNE 3RD.....what the hell is wrong with the weather.  There is nothing less fun than trying to do summer things when it feels like winter. 

Just had to vent a little before I go outside to hook up and load the stock trailer.  It will be a wet and cold day by the time we are done.

Crazy time coming up.....hopefully things settle down.

So this seems to be the most crazy month of the year. most people think December make life hectic but for me it is the month of June.  This weekend is our 4-H beef achievement day and sale.  I am a general leader so my day will be crazy with paperwork and numerous other projects.  I was able to hand off the picture taking this year which will be really nice.

This is a picture of Michelle's steer that she will be showing.  He looks very different now as he has had a hair cut and a has put on some more pounds.  These are the pictures that we took a few months ago to put in the sale flyer. (Well let me rephrase that - I would put a picture up but it will not let me load it.  Says it is rejected)

So on Saturday night we get finished and then I have to jump in my vehicle for a 5 hour drive to Red Deer for 3 days of conferences for the school division.  On this note I am happy to say that our schools in Slave Lake start taking kids again tomorrow.  Hopeful we will see a large number return to finish out the year, I think with all of the craziness in thier lives school would be the one normal thing they could return to.  Even if they don't accomplish much it would help them return to life a usual (almost).

When I get back next week I have two days of work at the office alone and then we have our horse achievement day, the girls will both best testing for levels and then we get to go ona nice trail ride.  I am looking forward to his.

This leaves us with the final week of school before exams which means convincing my kids it is important ot keep going to school even when it seems like summer has started.  This also means it will be our 4-H awards night for this year.  I hate to say it but I am really looking forward to it being over this year.  I actaully can't wait. 

Once this is done we have final exams and then we immediately start the process of moving Michelle to Grande Prairie where she needs to find a job and get ready to start school in September. 

Let it be said:  I HATE JUNE!!!!!  It is the most stressful month of the year. 

On a happier note!!

Today has been a long day but I am sitting here tonight feeling a little better about the situation around us.  I heard from Mark tonight and while the fire he is on is still out of control they feel they have made some headway.  They have managed to make the fire guard big enough today that it should miss the settlement it was headed for.

I had a school council meeting tonight and it was very positive.  The school has done a great job of supporting the children during this crisis and we have such a great town.  We are currently housing over 1200 evacuees (the total population of our town is 2200 people) and everyone is working together to keep them fed and sheltered. 

Which brings me to my really happy note.  This weekend was my middle daughters graduation.  Even though Mark had to leave to a fire not long after it started it was a great day and my daughter looked beautiful.  I hate to say it but I am going to post a bunch of pictures which you may find boring but I am so proud of her that I just have to show her and her boyfriend off.  So here goes.........

This is Michelle, my oldest daughter Nikki (the one with the tattoo) my neice Kelsey and my nephew Tyler just before they broke in to the traditional bottle of Baby Duck

 This is Mitchi getting her diploma from her school principal.

Mitchi had the priviledge of speaking for the rose ceremony honoring the parents.

This is one of Michelle's best friends Hillary.  She is also a cousin.

This is Michelle and her boyfriend with great nephew Cager.  This little boy loves Michelle so much.

Into the Baby Duck!!!

Michelle and Trent

Michelle and her other best friend Jessica.  She has went to school with these girls for 13 years.

Michelle and Trent with his little sisters.

Michelle with her Grandma Eve and Nanny Linda.  Unfortunately she has no grandpas left.

Starting to get her glow on at the dance. (literally)

Jessica, Michelle and Hillary with thier princess wands.

Looking pretty happy here!

It's the end of the night and she is still smiling.  She wasn't smiling quite so big the next morning as she put alot of effort into making sure the bar run out of raspberry sour puss.  Crazy girl.  Trent took her hair out when they got home, she had 83 bobby pins in her hair.  I hope she knows what a great boyfriend he is, not every man would do this.

So that is the happy highlight of my weekend. 

Our whole world is on fire!

It has been a long time since I have logged on and just when I thought my world would settle a bit we had a fire. This is actually a little bit of an understatement, so far there have been over 10000 people evacuated from thier homes in our area.  The town of Slave lake has lost over a third of its town to fire.  7000 residents have been evacuated from that town alone.    It is such a sad time but as an Albertan I am proud of the people and the support they have already provided for the people and communities we live in. 

My husband has been running equipment on these fires since last Thursday and he has already been on 7 different fires.  Some of which they have been called off because there was nothing more they could do.  We had 80 -100 kn winds for 2 days and they had to put lives before property and just let the fires burn in many places.  I haven't heard from him in a few days now because there is no cell reception where he is now.  No news is good news though.

This is a YouTube link to a video showing some of the pictures from the towm of Slave Lake.  We have family and firends who have lost thier home in this fire.  Please pray for everyone who has been touched by this devestation.  (I don't know how to have the video show up in my blog so I just put the link in)      http://youtu.be/s5m6OErRXpA

Here are a few other pictures from the fire areas.  My daughter took a couple of these pictures when she was driving home from High Prairie to Edmonton on Sunday before the road was closed.

The second picture shows a residential area in the town of Slave Lake that was destroyed.  Over a third of thier town has burned including a major portion of thier downtown core.  Very sad.

The third picture shows the fires bruning in our region.  There is one fire that is burning about 10 kilometers from our home but at this point it is being held and it would have to jump the river before it got to us.  It is quite windy today so we are keeping a close watch but the girls and I are ready to fight fire if needed and have already loaded our holiday trailer with valuables (pictures, etc.) in case we need to move. 

The odds of this are slim and I am not worried but it made the girls feel better to be prepared since the smoke got so bad yesterday at our house. 

Please pray for all of the people that are now homeless and the people living in shelters waiting to return to thier homes.

Mother nature is having a tantrum....

My favorite season is winter......with that being said, I am feeling a little bit of anger right now.  The weather patterns are starting to get on my last nerve.  In the last 2 weeks we have had over 3 feet of snow,  -38c (-36F) weather (of which there was school every day because is has to be -40 before school is cancelled.)  and then a short 4 days later it was.........wait for it..........8c (46f).  I am really not kidding, mother nature was having a hot flash and now she is set to have another one.  It is a balmy -28c  (-18f) to day and they are forcasting 5c (41f) for Thursday, with RAIN.  Excuse my french but "What the hell is going on!!!!!!!"

This picture is after the 1st plus 8 day.  I am sorry it is dark but I took it with my cell phone when we got home that night.  This is the snow that avalanched off the roof of my house in the warm weather.  For a little bit of prespective the truck that the snow just missed crushing is a 1ton dodge diesel with a 5" lift kit.  Needless to say that is a fairly big pile of snow.

I am tired of it, please just stay frozen.  I don't like, my animals don't like it.  It is hard to feel comfortable when temperatures are fluctuating by more than 20 degrees in a day.  

So it's Sunday and.....

It is still snowing and cold.  I do believe there should be some kind of a rule about snow and cold.  If it is going to snow in insane quantities it should be warm, about -5c not this -25 garbage.  My animals hate it, I hate it and we are all tired of it.

These are the 2 4-H steers that my girls will be showing in June.  They are looking good but seem to dislike thier calf shelter.  I think they sleep outside because the can see the other weanlings we are feeding in the other pen.  They really love the people attention as well.

This was a 4 wire fence before the snow.

This is the shortest snow pile in the yard beside the hay pen.  I am getting tired of shoveling my steps, the feed troughs and the paths to the feed sheds. On the plus side, shoveling is good for your abs and arms if you want to build some muscle.

This is just a group of my ladies headed from the waterer over to where the tractor has just placed some new round bales, they are sick of the snow to.   

This is Charlotte, she is the leader of the pack and you can tell how unimpressed she is with the snow.

Even the horses don't look terribly impressed.

This is Frank & Kenworth, our very overweight goats.  They are the sweetest, they are on thier wayup to the house for a sunday treat of bread and baking.  What we do for our animals.

This is my horses bragging that they are out of thier pen while we feed, they were prancing around and were pretty proud of themselves until our Jack Russell herded them back into the pen.

I just love how the snow piles up of the fence posts.  It just looks pretty.  This by the way is a 5 plank fence made out of 2x10's with 6" spacing between the planks so do the math.  We have lots of snow.

On the plus side, the snow is sure pretty to look at, this is my driveway which I actually can get out of right now, to much snow. 

That little pile of snow is my picnic table sitting on our cookout deck.  There are also 2 benches that you can not even see.  I can't wait for summer when we can get back to some serious bbq and marshmallow roasting.

I also cancelled a trip today that I was really looking forward to taking.  I was supposed to go to Edmonton (4 hours away) for a conference for the school board.  I got up this morning and drove the 28 km to town and decided that I was not going to risk life and limb for a four hour drive.  They roads were terrible and I am really glad I did not go.  I listened to our local radio station this evening and there have been some terrible accidents (no fatalities, thank God) and the police have even closed some highways because of bad driving conditions.  Obviously my choice was the right one.  The only downside to this is that I was booked to stay at the Fantasyland Hotel in West Edmonton Mall.  http://www.fantasylandhotel.com/home/wemindex.asp     If you ever to get to Edmonton, Alberta you really should check out this hotel and the mall.  It has the best roller coaster.

Man I wish this week was over!!!!!

So I am entirely sick of this miserably cold weather and all of the stress it causes me.

 It is currently -37c  (-34f  for those of you using the real system of measurement, not metric) and there is a wind that makes it feel like -45, oh and yeah......it is snowing.....AGAIN.   We have had easily 2 feet of snow this week and while that isn't alot compared to most places it feels like more when it is this cold.

Since it is so cold nothing wants to work right.  The loader won't start so we have been trudging through the snow to do chores.  The stock waterer that I worked so hard to winterize has frozen up, not because I did a poor job but because the bowl decided to have a pinhole leak in the bottom and unbeknowst to me, it was slowly dripping water into the base and culvert which has now frozen about 4' down.  That is going to be so much fun to unthaw tomorrow......thank god for the tiger torch. 

On a much more positive note, I am getting my hair did in the morning.  A cut and color by the greatest hair dresser in the world.  My wonderful middle daughter M is getting her graduation pictures and my hubby is coming home for the weekend.  He hasn't been home for 2 weeks and it will be good to see him.

I am also very happy for S's basketball team that played tonight and won their game with a convincing score of  42 - 30.  She took her new Canon Rebel and the kids took a bunch of pictures.

I am told that this shot was not planned (I call bullshit) but this is most of the girls team watching their boys team annihilate the other team 51-7 and that was making the starting line sit for 3/4 of the game and letting the juniors play.  My S is number 6 in the line. 

She is so serious about basketball.

When she went to basketball camp the called her Goon because she took this stance with everyone, whether they were 6" taller or 50lbs heavier.  She is really great at causing turnovers.

Basket #1 - nice form!

Basket #2 - Not quite as pretty (according to her) but worth points.

Basket #3 - This one was nice...that girl is about 6" taller than her.

This is my girl.  She lives for basketball, it is the only school sport she plays and wishes it lasted all year.  She is leaving tomorrow at noon (after writing her science midterm) to go to a weekend basketball tournament in Peace River which is about an hour away.  If the weather isn't to bad I am hoping that hubby an I can go watch on Saturday.  I am probably dreaming because they are forecasting a few more inches each of the next three days but we will see.

So ending this on a positive note after whining miserably at the start of this post have a great night and wish with me that it warms up.